Posts Tagged ‘PIPEDA’

The right to know? Balancing health risks and privacy rights for landlords during COVID-19

May 29th, 2020 by Claudia Pedrero

This article was first published on rabble.ca

What is a landlord’s responsibility when a tenant in a multi-residential building tests positive for COVID-19? Is a landlord obligated to share this information with other residents so they can take extra precautions? On the flip side, what expectation of privacy do tenants have if they share this information with their landlord?

Many of our firm’s housing clients have had to grapple with this difficult balance over the past few months as they weather the challenges brought on by the pandemic. Continue reading “The right to know? Balancing health risks and privacy rights for landlords during COVID-19”

Clearer rules needed for facial recognition technology

February 28th, 2020 by Michael Hackl

A version of this article was first published on rabble.ca

In a previous column, I wrote about the dangers that some police technology poses for civil liberties. In that column, I addressed police use of a computer program that claims to identify geographic areas that are more likely to experience crimes in order to direct police resources to those areas. Now, with Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders’ recent admission that some officers in the Toronto Police Service have been using a piece of facial recognition software called Clearview AI (named for the company that developed the software) since at least October 2019, we have another example of how law enforcement can use technology in a way that seriously threatens our civil liberties.

Clearview AI has apparently mined the internet for billions of photos of people, largely from social media sites and the open web, whereas other companies providing facial recognition technology to police rely upon government sources such as mugshots and driver’s license photos. Continue reading “Clearer rules needed for facial recognition technology”

Privacy compromised: Legal rights and protections in Canada

August 4th, 2016 by Michael Hackl

This article was first published on rabble.ca

Privacy and secrecy are two interrelated concepts that raise a great many legal and ethical questions, with few easy answers. A recent example of the interplay between these concepts comes from the recent misuse of surveillance video by a liquor store employee. To set the stage, we have to go back to 2013, when a nasty verbal altercation between a feminist activist and men’s rights supporters at an event at the University of Toronto was recorded and uploaded to the Internet. The online response was truly appalling, as the woman involved received numerous serious threats. The level and nature of the abuse (including death and rape threats) was so egregious that she withdrew from her advocacy work, and instead tried to disappear from public attention.

Continue reading “Privacy compromised: Legal rights and protections in Canada”

Anti-Spam Legislation and Non-profits and Charities – Are you ready?

November 5th, 2012 by Ted Hyland

Preparations continue to lay the groundwork for the coming into force of Canada’s anti‑spam law.1  On October 10, 2012, the CRTC published two information guidelines regarding the legislation: Guidelines on the interpretation of the Electronic Commerce Protection Regulations (CRTC) (CRTC Guideline 2012‑548) and Guidelines on the use of toggling as a means of obtaining express consent under Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CRTC Guideline 2012‑549).

The background to the CRTC Guidelines is that on December 15, 2010, Royal Assent was given to Canada’s anti‑spam law.  A date for the law’s coming into force will be set in the coming months, with the date now expected to be in mid‑2013.  The anti‑spam law will affect any individual, business and organization that:

  • Uses commercial electronic messages;
  • Is involved in the alteration of transmission data; and
  • Produces or installs computer programs.

If you are involved in the operation of a non‑profit or charity why should you care about the anti‑spam law? Increasingly, non‑profit organizations and charities are using electronic means of communicating with people, and the anti‑spam legislation will apply to many, if not all, of those electronic messages. How so?

Continue reading “Anti-Spam Legislation and Non-profits and Charities – Are you ready?”

  1. An Act to promote the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy by regulating certain activities that discourage reliance on electronic means of carrying out commercial activities, and to amend the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act, the Competition Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Telecommunications Act, S.C. 2010, c. 23. ↩